This invention relates to a setup condition recorder for a color scanner.
When color separation printing films or plates are produced, an operator sets up conditions such as density range, gradation, color correction, under color removal, sharpness emphasis, and so forth, for a color scanner depending on an original picture and specifications attached thereto for specific portions such as a highlight point, a shadow point, a point whose color is to be corrected, of the original picture so that a picture reproduction may satisfy the demands.
In order to carry this out, various methods have been attempted. For example, in the first method, the brightness and the color of the specific portions are adjusted while the output values of the optical system and the operational circuit in the color scanner are observed.
However, in this method, since the color scanner Posseses a high resolving power and the original picture involves minute unevenness in the specific portions, a little slippage off a check point results in a large change of the output value, and hence the output value does not represent the specific portion, or when the same portion is checked again, the same output value is not obtained, which is not reliable and not stable.
In the second method, the densities of the specific portions are measured by a densitometer, or the like, and a neutral-density filter, certain values of gray and color scales, and so forth, are selected depending on the densities measured. Then, according to these conditions selected or adjusting amounts calculated therefrom the basic setup of the color scanner is carried out.
In this embodiment, when the values in the gray scale range, i.e. between the highlight and the shadow points, of the picture is similar to those of other pictures, there is no problem. However, when it is not similar to the others, it is impossible to perform this method.
In the third method, the outline of an image in the original picture is drawn on a tracing paper, and the specific portions are marked therein. However, this method indicates a quite rough instruction.